Posture – It’s more important than you think!

It’s no surprise that we love harping on about your posture, but we promise it’s for a good reason. You can probably remember your mum or dad always telling you to ‘sit up straight’ or ‘stop slouching’! Well, they may have not even been aware, but they were doing wonders for your health and wellbeing.

Our daily lives constantly involve us taking on a hunched, rounded posture. We drive, sit at a desk, look at our phones, we are always rounding our shoulders and dropping our head forward. This activates the Sympathetic response. This means our body braces itself ready to run and fight. Our muscles tighten, our heart rate increases, blood flow moves away from the internal organs and towards our limbs. This Sympathetic activation shuts down the immune system, digestive system and reproductive system and our thoughts and thinking patterns become irrational. And unfortunately this is happening to many of us, all day, every day! Whilst some stress can be good for us, like if we needed to run away from a tiger, prolonged sympathetic activation leads to a host of diseases including anxiety, depression, reproductive issues, digestive issues, and many more chronic illnesses.

As you can tell posture has a massive effect on our whole health and not just the obvious aches and pains we feel. Studies have shown just by improving your posture you can begin to feel happier, more confident, less stressed, gain more energy and productivity and over all become a much healthier person.

After reading the above I’m sure your probably thinking you need to start doing something for your posture – and if your not, you should! There are so many great ways to help us effectively improve our posture, and therefore improve our health. If you’re interested in learning more check out our upcoming videos and photos on Facebook and Instagram for tips and tricks to improve your posture and your health. Or come down and visit us at Vida so we can assess your spine and help correct your postural habits.